Saturday, November 23, 2019

Why Does it Feel Like Facebook is Less Popular Than it Used to be?


               With all of the social media platforms available to us today it is hard to keep track of which ones are the most popular, and which ones best suit you. Growing up Myspace was basically the one and only social networking site to be on. Everybody had a Myspace page that was fully customizable with your choice of music, a decorative background, and those top 8 friends that must have ruined many friendships. But then sometime in middle school along came Facebook. Facebook had a different, more proper and organized style to it. White backgrounds, profile pictures up in the corner and posts below. At some point they added the banner feature, which allowed users to post a large banner like photo above their profile. Other than that the setup was rather bland compared to that of Myspace’s. Nevertheless it worked out, and Facebook grew rapidly and suddenly everyone had a Facebook profile. Not just kids or young adults either. Their parents and other older relatives infiltrated the main source of online media being consumed by teens and young adults.

                It’s not that we don’t love and enjoy our beloved relatives, but Facebook was used an escape from the real world for many of us. It was a place to share ideas with your friends, tell people what you did that day, post pictures of parties, share jokes and memes, and not have to worry about responsibilities. But an older more mature audience doesn’t fully understand the content that we share or why we share it. These newer generations grew up online and established a kind of community that older generations simply have a hard time comprehending (a majority of the time). It is rude however, to seemingly imply that the older generations shouldn’t be allowed on social media. That is not what I am saying at all. The younger generations simply fled to other social networking sites such as Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and Snapchat. That does not mean that they have up and left Facebook behind though.

                Facebook has simply turned into a more appropriate, seemingly family oriented social networking site. It is a great place to post pictures of weddings, send invitations to events, announce pregnancies, baby pictures, give support to those in need, inspirational stories and quotes, and it is a place where many people obtain their news. I am not claiming Facebook is a completely innocent site, there is a fair share of more “adult” oriented content, but its main idea is much more innocent. Newer sites like Reddit, Instagram, and Snapchat are more laid back and the content seems to be aimed at a younger audience such as young adults. Though these other social media sites are popular, and with Instagram being the fastest growing platform out there, Facebook is still the leading social networking site by popularity. Even though these new sites catch our attention and we do spend time on them, many of us haven’t deleted our old Facebook accounts, nor have the forgotten about them.



4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. completely agree with you that Facebook is evolving throughout the years. I remember when Facebook first came out. I was in the 7th grade and I wasn't aloud to get one at first, my mom wouldn't let me. I feel like there has been so many new social media platform that people almost "forgot" about Facebook. Now, this social media site is more directed to people who are older than 30. Instagram and Snapchat have become the popular social media platforms for kids that are my age. These platforms are more chill compared to Facebook. I post my pictures throughout the year on Facebook for my family to see and for my cousins in Italy to see from across the globe. I will say Facebook is a great social media to really connect with people because I really don't know many people without them, except my dad. I do think that the older the generation the more open they are on Facebook. I feel like my grandparents overshare their opinions on Facebook like their political opinions. I think that the older generation actually posts more than the younger generation because we are all moved on to Instagram and Snap.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally agree with your blog as a whole! Facebook when we were younger was a place for us to make silly status' and post on our friends page. Our new Facebook nowadays is Twitter and Instagram. I can say personally, my parents are on all three platforms but seem to still use Facebook the most. They now post on their friends pages. They use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends they haven't seen in a while. I actually think its awesome that the older generation have made Facebook more their thing than ours because we have so many other platforms to use and enjoy. Parents don't want to post a picture every time they want to update people on their life, so it is perfect they have a place to post their status.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is a vast effect on social media to teenage. It has its physical and mental health effects. Now the question arises on how Social Media Effects mental health? It's a common scenario we are observing that nowadays people are mostly communicating through social media. They are introvert and can't go out generally.

    ReplyDelete